Pope`s Visit A Party In New Orleans

August 22, 1987|By ROYAL BRIGHTBILL, United Press International

NEW ORLEANS -- Motorists on Interstate 10 heading into downtown New Orleans catch a fleeting glimpse of a gaudy billboard featuring Pope John Paul II against a French Quarter cathedral backdrop, with the words ``Love that city`` in yellow-red letters.

Scattered around town, the signs co-sponsored by a fried chicken chain and borrowing words from its advertising do much to reveal the soul of this ``let`s-have-a-party-let`s-forget-our-troubles`` town the pope will see in September.

Any event, somber or gay, sporting or political, secular or ecclesiastical is an excuse for a parade or a party. New Orleans is the city of jazz funerals, the French Quarter, the Superdome and Mardi Gras, its most famous blend of Catholic tradition and party mentality.

Its historical significance aside, the papal visit Sept. 12 and 13 is the signal for another celebration as only New Orleans can produce. It will do so in spite of chronic underemployment -- currently 9.4 percent -- a serious city budget crunch, deep poverty, embarrassing crime problems and a dubious distinction as the cultural center of a state many of its own political leaders refer to as a banana republic.

Following an address to Catholic leaders at St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest active cathedral in the nation, John Paul II will travel by motorcade from the French Quarter to the Superdome, tracing much of a traditional Mardi Gras parade route, for a youth rally. The rally will feature a mini-Mardi Gras parade in the Superdome.

John Paul II will see a predominantly Catholic city, rich in French and Spanish tradition, that is 55 percent black, with large populations of Central American and Vietnamese refugees. It is a city where the dominant television and most respected news-talk radio stations are owned by Loyola University of the South, a Jesuit university.

``New Orleans -- with its long tradition of Catholic higher education in Loyola and Xavier, and as the home of America`s only black Catholic university -- was an obvious choice,`` said Archbishop Phillip Hannan, at whose residence on the campus of Notre Dame Seminary the pope will spend two nights.

City streets are in sad disrepair, but Carrollton Avenue, which Notre Dame fronts, is being lined with palms for the occasion.